MLAARE -Gone a Looking

A police officer walked into our store today.
Not an uncommon occurrence, though most of the time, when they come in it's because they've just rescued an animal or are getting food for their own pets.
I saw the officer walk in,
And walk all the way to the back of the store looking back and forth like they were looking for something or someone.

My first thought, was that some perp had entered the store to hide and the officer was trying to find them,
But I was busy with tasks...and it's not like you can go straight up to an officer and ask "Who are you looking for? What are you looking for?" Of course, you can, but it just seemed kinda...'you don't do that'....
In any case.
A few minutes later I see the manager talking to the officer,
And I approached -out of curiosity.
And my manager said "Hey, Sarnic may know."
And so the officer showed me a picture of a couple of children, and asked if I'd seen them.
They weren't wearing the clothes in the picture, but did I recognize their faces?

I stared at the picture, but couldn't say for sure if I'd seen them before, though I knew I hadn't seen them today.
Why? Because I hadn't talked to many customers during that point, nor had many children in the store.

I have no idea why the officer was looking for them...
Were they lost?
Had they run away from home?
Were they skipping school?

Who knows....
I just know they weren't there, but if we saw them we were supposed to contact the police.....

I really want to know how that story ends...
I hope its on a good note...

-Sarnic Dirchi

MRS -Amazing Roommate

It's been no secret that I've wanted to leave my apartment complex.It was well known that as soon as my contract would be up, I would be out of there faster than a bullet from a gun.
Because the place....just wasn't working for me.
I'd had horrible roommates, that I could barely talk to, and hardly socialize with.

But for some reason...
Things didn't work out the way I wanted them to.
I wanted to move out.
Desperately so. The apartment complex was closing in on me.

But things weren't working.
Me and my two friends from High School wanted to move in together into an apartment.
But every place we found...we either didn't like, wasn't in their price range, or got sold out before we could put in an application.

Everything was so hard.
So difficult.
nothing was working out.
And the deadline for me to move out was drawing nearer... :S

So finally, in a final act of desperation, I suggested that we just stayed in my current apartment complex. As I was pretty sure I could still renew my contract. And it was in their price range and a location that they liked.

So I made the sacrifice.

And lo and behold.
Things worked out.
Freakishly well. (God's hand in this obviously.)
Because within 24 hours we were set. We had the apartment, we'd all be living together.
And best yet. I would be able to stay roommates with my Amazing Roommate!
A roommate who moved in a semester before my contract was up. A roommate that began to turn the whole horrible apartment experience around. So that it actually wasn't so bad, because I had her with me. Because she would talk to me. Because she would do things with me.
It was Amazing.
And I had been saddened that I wasn't going to be able to live with her when I moved out.
Now that I wasn't moving out, I could still be her roommate!!

Which is a surefire blessing for me.
Because she's been the constant sunlight in my life.

Because I'm pretty sure if me and my two friends had managed to find a 3 bedroom apartment with just us three....
I'd be going crazy.
From isolation.
From loneliness.
From feeling left out.
Because they bond much better with each other than they do with me.

But with my Amazing Roommate here...
Oh. It's so much better.
I have someone that I too can bond with, laugh with, talk for hours with without it feeling like a forced conversation.

For some reason or another I'm meant to stay at my current apartment complex.
One of them for sure is the fact that I have my Amazing Roommate as my Roommate.

I have no idea what I'd be doing now without her here to keep me from going crazy. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

MRS - Idealistic Expectations

So, for the longest time...
like since we graduated from High School.
I've been trying to convince my two best friends from High School to come down to College Town, and be roommates with me.

It hadn't happened in so long, that it was more of a token expression,
When it actually ended up happening.
My friends decided to move down to go to school in College Town.
And they wanted to be roommates!

Yay!

I was a mixture of excitement and nervousness.
Because this could either turn out awesome.
Or we'd no longer be friends at the end of this...

It's that sort of thing where they were talking about how much time we could spend together, how much we could do together.

And yet....expectations...are not being met.
The ideal...was a nice dream.

Because the two of them have been able to hang out more often than I have with them because they've lived in the same town since we've graduated, while I moved away.

Soo....
Things are kind awkward between us.
in that we haven't yet found something to break past the 'what do we talk about' phase.
Because before...we'd meet up, catch a movie, chat a little...and then go home.
Now.
Now. that we see each other every day.
What is there to actually talk about?
It's the sad truth that our interests have somewhat gone on separate paths...

And so what could have been amazing...
Isn't being so amazing right now.

It's kinda hurtful really.
Because they were so excited to move in with me. To do stuff with me.
And yet we don't.

I come in all the time to find them chatting animatedly with each other,
But when I enter...they  fall silent...end up leaving the room soon after...

If I try to make conversation...it feels forced. Stilted.... like they want it done with as soon as possible.

Then they end up disappearing into a bedroom, to continue chatting and laughing....

Leaving me feeling left out.
I listen to them, having fun, laughing, chatting, talking about everything under the sun...
And I'm saddened,
I'm lonely.
Because I'm not being included. :(
I crave to have what they have with them...
But it's not happening.

Granted, we've only been at this like a week....
But still.... I wish it was an easier transition.
Because being the odd man out,
Is my least favorite pastime.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Prepackaged Nightmare

Sometimes I wonder if the people who ship us our bugs, take a random disliking to certain stores.
Like they purposely and knowingly send them more bugs than they know the store can handle.

I've been wondering that about our store.
If they've just gotten a vendetta against us for some reason.

You see,
One of our bug options at the store.
Is prepackaged crickets.

Crickets that come to us already nicely packaged up in a little container -they're live crickets- with their food and water and everything.

For those who want to grab a 'lunch box' for their reptilian friend.

Which is all fine and good.
Except most of them end up dying within the week.
Which means by the time the next shipment comes around.

The containers we haven't sold are full of dead bugs.
Not sellable.

We used to just toss those and write it off as a loss.
Now though, we take the time to refill their boxes of crickets with fresh ones.
Ones that we have in a loose container to bag up per customer request.

Which when you only have like six or seven boxes isn't a big deal.

But for the past couple of weeks.
They've been sending us a lot more prepackaged crickets.

Why?
Who knows.
But they're waaay too many.
Each box of prepackaged crickets we get in usually has like 12 containers inside.

And it used to be that they'd send us like 24 of each. Maybe 36 if we really needed them.
So that's like 3 boxes.
No big deal. three boxes total is fine.

The past couple of weeks though.
We've been getting EIGHT boxes.
EIGHT!
At 12 containers per box.
That is basically 100 boxes of crickets!!!

Considering that our little rack area only has room for like...40 boxes...

That's waaaaaay over doing it.

Way.
Way.
Waaaaay.
Over doing the shipment.

For the past couple of weeks we've only managed to sell like 40 of them.
So if I'm constantly getting 100 boxes of crickets...
And we only sell like 40.
And most of them die off in a week if not sold.
that's a 60% loss.

And since we're now refilling up those boxes.
If we're only selling 40 and have 60 left.
(Okay so I had like 30 left this week.)
And we get in a 100 more AGAIN.
The number isn't going to get any smaller.
Unless we go crazy convincing all customers to go with the boxes.
We're going to be overrun again next week.
When the fesh shipment comes in.
And I have to dip into our loose cricket resources to make sure the prepackaged crickets can sell...

It's going to be a nightmare!

I mean 30 is like 3 boxes of crickets that I had left over last week.
And I got in 8 more this week.
So 11 boxes of crickets.
Aye. Aye. Aye.
We're doomed.

>.<
I half wonder if this is the final shove though.
That would be nice.
Because these prepackaged crickets have been on clearance -i.e. we shouldn't be carrying them anymore- for the past 6 months!
Did they have a ton at the warehouse?
Did they decide we were the only store now to get the overstock?

Who knows.

But we're receiving a ton,
And I can only hope that its the final shove before we stop carrying them for good.
Because that would be one less headache and time waster of our day if we didn't have to worry about ensuring those prepackaged crickets had enough crickets in them to sale.

One can only hope.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Continuing Cat Bath

I was right.
about the cat customer.
I was right,
That she was going to be a handful to deal with when she came in.

So, after a night,
Where I spent worrying that the people who wanted to get the black cat.
Were actually getting it to sacrifice it during the full moon.
(Because I have heard of that happening before.)
And that I'd have to think of ways to convince them that this cat wasn't for them....

I happened to be showing a young family one of our other cats,
When this woman walked in.
(After the deadline I gave her last night, mind you, so I'd taken down the sign saying this cat was on hold.)
She was older, grandmotherly.
And guess who she was looking at?
Yes.
The black cat.
She asked to see her,
but I had to finish with another customer first.
Because I can only have one cat out at a time.

Finally though, I got out the cat for the woman to hold.
And the first thing she exclaims is "Wow! This cat sheds a lot!"
And my response was 1. It's a Long Haired kitty. Of course she is going to shed!
2. It's the changing of the seasons so they're going to shed more then as well.
3. She hasn't been combed out in at least a week or so because we don't have time to do that in the store. So once she gets a nice thorough brushing, the shedding won't be as much -so long as she keeps up a weekly combing thing.

The woman had tons of questions about the cat.
Many which I could not answer.
So I ended up giving her the number to the Adoption Group. Because they know more about the kitty's personality than I do. Especially since the cat has only been in our store...like a week. You don't know for sure their personalities in the first week. But I had her call them (and she spent like 15 minutes on the phone talking to them.) to have them answer any questions she had.

But another,
Was that she wanted the cat all nice and clean and deshedded before she adopted out the cat.
And asked if our Groomers could do that.
I said only a couple of groomers were able to groom cats, the others were dog only groomers. So if one of our cat groomers was present, then we'd see what we could do.

-She was getting the cat for her granddaughter for her birthday btw. So no crazy rituals (beyond crazy birthday celebration stuff I suppose...)

Luck was on the customer's side,
Because one of our Groomers Sila was in fact there. -She's been grooming cats for years.
And so we asked what could be done.
And so the Sila quoted a price for what needed to be done -bath, drying, brushing, cleaning. etc.

Which the customer was fine with doing.

But also. I learned an interesting tidbit.
Indoor cats shed a lot more than out door cats.
Why?
Because outdoor cats have the sun and temperature changes that tell them when the seasons are changing. But with indoor cats and their artificial light and set temperature settings...their coats don't know 'what season it is' and so shed more frequently because of it.
Go figure. O.o

In any case.
Back to the customer.
so we established a groom could be done,
and I had them start the paperwork.
But they had to leave to go to a thing.
So they were going to finish the paperwork, pay for the grooming, and finish the adoption process.....

But I have no idea if they actually came back.
Because I left before the came back.
Which is....rather hard, because I knew the situation best. It means that something is more likely to go wrong because I had to hand it off to someone else to deal with. *sighs*
Hopefully it was all sorted out alright.
Hopefully the cat was adopted, and the granddaughter is happy with her new pet. :)

Guess we'll see when I get back to work....I'm guessing it all worked out.
I just hate it when I don't know the ending of certain stories.
*sighs*

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -How Black Is the Cat?

I got a call from a customer today.
Asking if we had any black cats up for adoption.
I told them that yes, we had one black cat.
A long haired female, about a year old, with all her vaccinations, rabies, been fixed, as well as microchipped.

I don't know how much of what I was saying to the customer over the phone was making sense. As they would ask me questions to things I had already answered them about.
Perhaps they were double checking to make sure they heard everything correctly.

I established everything with them. Said we could have the cat available until an hour after the store opened tomorrow.
And hung up.

Only to get a call like two minutes later with an odd question.
"How Black is the Cat?"
O.o
Uh... black?
"But how black?"
So I said she was black, a darker black, but with some lighter greyish tones.
But how much of the cat was black? If she was lighter on the stomach, that was alright. The customer was mostly concerned that the head and back of the body were black.
I told them it was black,
But they kept questioning me, and I was in the middle of trying to help the other customers.
So I told them, that if they could wait like 10 minutes I would send them a picture of the cat. So then they could see for themself how 'black' the cat was.

I took a few pictures.
But the kitty was being stubborn so it was hard to get a good picture.
I sent the best one I had to them.
Via my phone since the work phone doesn't have picture capability -though that would be cool to have. It would solve so many problems. When customers call with questions expect answers that can only be answered if seen in person.
Its true that many people don't have picture texting still, but it could help with this sort of situation.

In any case I sent the one picture.
And the customer called me back a few hours later on my phone.
To ask me about the 'grey cat' I'd sent a picture of.

*shakes head*
They weren't even sure where the number was sending the picture from. Though I'm pretty sure that I'm the only one who said I'd send a picture of the 'black' cat. And in the message I even said "Hey this is the cat from Starsmet." Just to double check.

But they were so confused about it.
The cat was grey in the picture.
No. Its black.
It is black.
But the lighting from the room/phone camera made the cat look more grey.
I told the customer that I had another picture of the same cat that made her look darker, it was just taken while the cat was behind bars. Still it showed the cat as black.
And so I sent the picture....

And didn't hear back from them.

So we'll see.
If the customers make the 2 hour journey to come see the cat tomorrow.
-That's why I offered to send a picture, because they were 2 hours away.

I'm half hoping that they don't show up.
Because really, if they were difficult to work with on the phone.
They're going to be difficult in person.
Especially if the cat isn't as black as they want it to be.
Then they'll get angry about driving all the way there to not get the cat...
Yah, we'll see.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Once a Week

You can tell the panicked customers.
The ones who are in over their heads.
Who have no idea what they're getting into to.

The ones who have trouble listening.
Even more trouble comprehending.
All that is needed. All that is required to care for the pet they picked up.

The customer today,
Had picked up a couple of Horny Toad lizards out in the desert.
And surprise surprise.
One of them had ended up having babies.

Which meant more lizards to take care of.

The woman came in wanting to know what she needed to take care of them.
So I told her.

And in the midst of our conversation.
While I was telling her what types of bugs the horny toads could eat.

I was telling her that she could feed the lizards crickets once a week.
And mealworms the rest of the time
-Because she lived far from a pet store. And mealworms are more hardy than crickets that can die for any reason whatsoever.

And the woman was like "Wait...I need to feed them crickets everyday for a week?"
Uh...
No..
That wasn't what I said at all. O.o
I said Once a week.
As in you feed them crickets one time that week, and mealworms the other 6 days.

I thought that was clear.
But the concept somehow got misunderstood.
Thankfully it was cleared up.

Hopefully she does well with taking care of her new pets.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Lost Lizard

We lost our Chinese Water Dragon today.
Well actually yesterday.
Maybe the day before...
Its hard to say.
I do know that yesterday that when I tried to show a customer him...
He wasn't in the cage.
:S: Not good. Maybe he got sold...and someone forgot to put an empty sign in the cage?
But when I checked our inventory...he was still showing up as still there.
And there was this hole...in the cage.
:S Had he somehow gotten out?

Yes.
Yes he had.
Today I finally got the opportunity to pull the cage out of its setting,
And there behind it.
Was him.

Who knew how many days he'd been there.
But at least we found him!
Now....to remember to tape up that hole before he disappears again....

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Stay. No I mean it. Stay!

Its frustrating sometimes when customers can't follow simple directions.
You'd think "Stay here." Would be easy to understand.
But its not.
The customer doesn't stay.
They wander.
They leave.
They make me go through a lot of effort sometimes for nothing because they can't wait for me to search out the answer, and then make me search them out when I do find the answer.

Today for example.
I had a gentleman come up to me asking if we were getting rid of one of our brands of dog food.
O.o Uh... No?
Considering that it the brand he was talking about was the store's own brand (meaning we are the only store to carry that food.) It was highly unlikely that we'd be getting rid of it.
But he wanted to know if we were.
Because the food he wanted wasn't on the shelf in the larger bag.
And he could only find one bag of the smaller bag.

Well...sir, we aren't a conveyor belt.
We don't always have supplies on hand to pull out more if we run out on the shelves.
I told him so. That we probably hadn't yet gotten our truck in to stock up on the food yet. That it had just arrived and we wouldn't be stocking until tomorrow.
But I told him I'd go double check in the back, if he'd wait here, and see if we happened to have any back there.

Usually the 'wait here.' is a code for "Quit bugging me for a minute so I can go find your product."
He apparently didn't understand the "I can search faster without you talking to me." concept.
Because he followed me right into the back of the store.
Right into our back room area, where customers aren't allowed.
And I told him "You can't be back here."
And he was like O.o "Why?"
Because it's an employee's area only sir! We have food and boxes and pallets and stuff all over the place because its a storage room. Even though there is no door there, customers know not to go back there!! Why can't you understand that!
"Because it can be dangerous back here sir." I said as I clambered all over everything.
Honestly. It can be and we really rather would not get sued by your carelessness in an area you're not supposed to be in.

Frankly I find it irritating sometimes when the customer doesn't trust me to be able to find something without them right there breathing down my neck.
Ugh!
Don't follow me unless I say to follow me! If I say wait here. I really do mean wait here.
I thought this gentleman had just moved out of the non customer area.
But when I came out with another bag of dog food (the smaller size as we didn't have the larger.)
He wasn't there.
I had to search the entire store to find him....up at the checkout stand.
What. You couldn't wait for me to answer your question befor eyou decided to leave?!?
Ugh.
So frustrating when the customer doesn't stay put.
It's not always easy to find them again, especially if you weren't paying attention towho you were talking to. >.<
Thankfully we got it sorted out.
Found out that the supplier is having trouble sending us food...but otherwise, we will be getting more of that brand in. No need to panic and switch to a different brand.... *sighs*

Customers.
They should take obedience classes....

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Scrub a Dub Dub

It was one of those weeks,
Where the days were hectic.
Things weren't getting done.
Like scrubbing of the fishtanks.
We'd neglected them the past few days.
Because opening would take too long, then the day would get busy with customers, and the night people had other tasks they needed to focus on.
So... the tanks were getting cleaned.

That was....bad.
Because we had our DM coming into the store the next day.
And if our fish tanks looked like a disaster...
That wouldn't reflect well on anyone.

So. The main motive of my day.
Was to get those tanks cleaned.

And thankfully.
The day happened to be dead.
Hardly any customers came into the store.
So I was able to clean nearly a hundred tanks in a couple of hours with only a couple interruptions.
And in the end.
The tanks were clean!
Yah!
^^
Though my arm ached so hard the next day from all the scrubbing.
At least we're caught up now.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Dust and Feathers

We were in the middle of receiving in our new animals into the store.
I was inspecting them, to make sure they looked healthy enough to be received by us.

We'd gotten to the Dumbo Rats, and the guy picked up the last one...
And the rat freaked out.
O.o
Like it went all spastic, squeaking, rushing around.
The handler couldn't keep a hold on it.
And the rat managed to get out of the box, onto the floor, rushing around.
(Don't worry we were in a contained room where it couldn't escape into the main store. O.o that would have been a nightmare.)

We couldn't get a hold of it,
And the rat slipped under a rack of bird cages we had back there.
A narrow space.
Making it hard to reach in and grab the terrified creature out.

I took over before the guy could move,
Going to my stomach, with a net in hand, I spent like five or so minutes fishing around, before finally I pulled the now dusty feather covered rat out and got him into his temporary cage.

Before I dusted my own feather covered dusty self off as well.

And the guy was like
"Wow, you're not afraid of getting dirty are you?"

Ha.
I had to laugh.
I mean....I work in a pet store!
Dirty is part of the game here.
When you work with animals, there are bound to be messes.
Not comfortable with messes...you shouldn't be in a pet store.
So I answered "Nope, I'm not." :) lol.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -What Do You Need?

Customers.
Customers.
Customers.
Customers.

I had a woman approach me today, asking me where we had moved the cat collars had been moved to.
So I showed her.
And as I was about to leave, because she'd said she didn't need any more help.
She started talking to me. Saying that we no longer carried the treats her pets wanted.
I assumed it was a cat at first.
Because we were looking at cat collars.
It was only natural to assume.
But she went on about the treats in the boxes, the round boxes.
I knew we'd moved things around.
But I couldn't remember cat treats coming in boxes that she described.
So I asked her "Cat treats or Dog treats?"
And she continued talking.
But NOT ANSWERING MY QUESTION!
I repeated it like seven times.
I tried switching it up. "Is this a dog or a cat?"
Finally in her rambling I got out that it was a dog she was trying to feed.
A very picky dog that only eats certain treats.
But I couldn't get out of her what treats she was looking for!
She wouldn't answer my questions!
It was like she didn't even hear my words. She heard me speaking but not what I was saying.
So. Very Frustrating.
She wouldn't answer my questions.
So I could not help her.
I could only listen as she told me of how picky her dog was and that she had a hard time finding treats that the dog would eat. *sighs*

Customers.
I like it better when I can help them.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Hay Fever

There was a woman who came into the store the other day;
Who firmly stated that she needed 'a big bag of hay.'
So I took her over to the Hay, faintly irritated that she couldn't read the signs and direct herself there herself.
(It just takes a few seconds to look upwards people. We do have signs that tell you where things are, no need to run straight to the first person who see to ask them to direct you to it, especially when said person is rather busy.)
I took her over to the Hay, and pull out the first big bag of Hay that I saw.
"Oh no, that's not the kind I buy. That's not good hay."
"It's the brand we use Ma'am..." -that stopped her for a moment.
"Still, that's not the brand that I use."
"Alright so which brand are you looking for?"
"Uh...."
(Why don't customers know the name of the things they need to buy? You buy it shouldn't you know the brand name?)
So I list off a few different brands that make Hay, finally alighting on the one she buys.
"Yes. That one! I need the big bags."
I looked to the shelf. Looked upwards. "It looks like we don't have the largest size right now, but we do have this next size here, but I'll go look in a couple other places to see if we have it there."
Which I did, only to confirm that the bag she had was the only size of that kind that we had. But at least she was getting a deal on it where if she bought two bags of the brand she wanted, (even if it was the smaller size) she would get a third one free.
But she seemed to be aiming to get ALOT for a little. So she asked me if I had any other deals like that for the other bags of hay.
I hadn't seen any, but I told her I'd double check.
She was rather unhappy that there were no other buy 2 get 1 deals for her to take advantage off. Just regular discount sales.
Nearly she debated about going to the Larger bag I'd originally shown her -since we used it here in the store- Which would have been irritating in of itself because of how much effort I'd gone through to get her three bags the same size that matched the deal.
Luckily she decided to go with the deal...
Still frustrated that she made me run all over the store though. *sighs* the lengths we go through to try and make customers happy...

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Wood Chip Disaster

I had a customer come into the store the other day,
Who'd just gotten their child a brand new pet.
A rabbit. One of those longer haired versions.
That apparently won third place in the county fair recently.

Its a customer I've seen in the store before.
With other pets that they've gotten for their child.
Its a thing where they just can't say no.

But in any case.
The child was super excited for their new pet.
Constantly taking it out of the little dog carrier they had it in to show it off to other customers and coworkers.

Which wouldn't have been so bad.
Except.
In the carrier.
They had bedding.
That would spill out into the cart whenever the rabbit would get pulled out.
And carts....aren't known for solid bottoms.
So the bedding would spill out onto the floor.

Which would have been easy to clean up.
EXCEPT.
They didn't just stick to one spot!
No.
These particular customers had to wander all over the store!
Leaving a trail of woodchips everywhere they went!

And made NO EFFORT whatsoever to clean it up!

>.<
By the end our store was covered in wood chips.
Which was BAD because that was a slipping hazard to other customers.
It also made our store look so dirty and uncared for.
Because there was wood chips all over the place!

It was like we'd clean up one mess, and come back and there were three more left in other places!
Gah!
Why?
Did they not realize they were making a MESS!
Why didn't they try to clean it up?

>.<
I was definitely glad when they left the store so we could again make the floors safe for the other customers.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Old Coworker Problems

I had an old coworker come into the store today.
A coworker that I really wished to never see again.
Because nobody in the store liked her when she worked here.
Because she was snobby. Because she complained. Because she was annoying.
Basically....she wasn't a good fit for our store at all.
And it was a serious relief when she left the store for a different job.
(Not to mention...she shared my name which equals an almost automatic dislike in my book -yes I'm weird like that.)

In any case.
She came into the store today.
Why?
Because she wanted to get a bearded dragon.
Who knows why she decided on that pet.
But decide on that pet she did.
And she was basically to that point where she was pricing things.
Saying that she could get certain things for less at another place, and she would get the cage first and then she would come get the bearded dragon later.
-I halfway think she was trying to get me to come down in price to get her to buy from our store instead of some other place....which is weird...because we don't do that. And she should know that because she used to work here!

In any case.
It was a surprise when she came back a while later.
With husband in tow. (O.o when did she get married?)
To do what?
Buy a cage here.
And a bearded dragon.

No idea what changed her mind on that whole waiting thing.
But she didn't make the process easy.
Asking all these questions about cages, whether it was better to get one size or another to get a kit or get it all separate. blah blah blah. And when she finally decided on a cage...she then was like "Hey aren't there coupons for this particular product." and I was like O.o No?
(Funny thing is that if she'd come on Saturday we had had one day coupons that would have gotten her half off a reptile and half off a cage...but that was Saturday, not today.)
But I offered to go double check.
Guess what? No coupons.
So I told her that.
And she was like "Don't you guys give away a coupon book when you buy a pet and a cage?"
And I was like. "No...you're probably thinking of the booklet we give away when you adopt a cat and dog, but that's just for cats and dogs."
Now that I think about it, every now and then we occasionally have coupon books for when you buy another animal that gives you discounts, but unfortunately for her, we weren't doing that sort of thing right now.

It was...rather annoying to have to deal with her. To explain everything to her, when I know she knew a lot of it already at one point. *shakes head*
But what really bugs me is that she was trying to get a deal at every turn it seemed like.
Telling the cashier that she could switch out one type of bedding for another at no additional cost (un true.) Among other things...plus she was returning a bunch of items she bought as well!! O.o So. Confusing.

I was so so very relieved when she finally left the store.
But I can only imagine that she will be one of 'those' customers.
That is going to come in everyday for a week to pester us with questions and concerns and exchanges and who knows what else. She's going to make it so we groan when she walks in the door. I can just see it now. Really, I hope I'm wrong. I'd rather not see her again....but I guess we'll see how it goes.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Left In A Box

Things can get hectic sometimes at work.
To the point where you can forget a thing or two.

Apparently one of my coworkers forgot a thing or two.
As we had a couple of birds returned,
Because one of them had apparently bit a girl.
(Probably because it was antagonized, birds usually fly away unless they can't get away.)
In any case, they were returned.
And my coworker moved them into the iso room.
But immediately got called to go help elsewhere in the store.
One thing led to another, and...
The coworker totally forgot about the birds.
And left.
Only remembering way after the store was closed.
That the birds hadn't been taken out of their temporary containment....

However.
They didn't stay the night in their boxes...

No, another coworker ended up closing the backrooms.
One of the new hires.
And thankfully found the birds.
And put them into a proper cage...
in a different room.

Which lead to panic this morning...
When my coworker went to go rescue the birds.
And couldn't find them in the room they were left in.
But a quick search in another room.
Showed that they were there.

While they weren't put in the right room.
I do like that the new coworker actually thought through the problem.
I don't know if they went to another to ask w. hat to do with the birds,
Or just did it on their own initiative.
In either case,
I'm glad that they didn't just leave the birds in their boxes.
But instead did something about it.
^^ It seems like this new coworker is going to do well here.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Headless

I was in the middle of feeding the reptiles.
When a couple of children happened by.
And stopped in front of the birds to look at them.

More specifically the Parakeets.
Which were rather mellow at that point in time.
Just sitting there, some of them sleeping.

And the little girl exclaimed:
"It's a headless bird!!"

O.o
I glance over to look as the other child tries to patiently explain that the bird was not headless, they just couldn't see the head right now, because of how it was sleeping.
Because the bird had turned its head to rest on its back, and at first glance the bird did look headless. Because you couldn't see the eyes or the beak....

But the first child would not hear it.
"It's a headless bird!"
She kept exclaiming over and over again.
No matter how many times the boy tried to tell her that it wasn't headless.
She wouldn't hear it.
It was headless and that was the end of it.

*shakes head*
lol.
The things children think.
At least I can confidently say that we don't sell headless birds at work. Jus tones that give off the appearance of being headless when they sleep.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Breakaway

I couldn't do it anymore.
Deal with people at work.

I'd been moving from customer to costumer for like 2 and a half hours straight.

And it got to be too much.
I was tired of the people.
This was Tuesday after all!
Tuesdays are supposed to be dead!
But no.
Today was one of those days where people were coming in constantly.
Making it difficult to finish up the last few tasks.
I was tired.
I needed a break.

So I asked the manager if it would be bad to take my last break half an hour before I was off.
Because I needed a mental break away.

Thankfully they said yes.
And it was a relief to be able to get off the floor for a bit.
It gave me enough energy to spend the last half hour of my shift on the floor able to help a few more customers before I could escape.

Most days this isn't a problem.
But for some reason today it was.
I couldn't 'adult' anymore.

In any case, I survived. :)

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Hamster Shuffle

One of the things I like at work,

Is that I'm occasionally confronted with problems. 

Not with customers -that's hardly a favorite thing.

But with things within the department.

Things the are like...mental puzzles. 

Today, for example.

My puzzle, was to bring out as many new animals to our sales floor as possible. 

It was rather easy to do.

Because we'd had a busy week of selling hamsters.

So most of the cages were empty. O.o

Totally weird.

I mean, it happens, but its rare that the hamsters get so popular that we have most of them empty.

In the end we had like 9 empty cages. 

And I had a bunch of animals in the back. 

Winter Whites, Mice, Robo Dwarfs, Syrians etc. 

For the most part, we try to not have more than like 3 hamsters/mice per cage.

That way the cage stays a bit cleaner, the animals aren't as crowded, etc. 

But if we have few cages, then sometimes its easier to double them up. 

Especially if the animals already came to us in Quantities greater than three. 

Today.

That wasn't a problem.

I was actually looking for ways to split the animals so that all the cages could be filled.

And I succeeded!

..Almost...I ended up with one empty cage by the end of it with no animal to go within. :( 

But still.

I managed to figure out how to get almost all our cages filled!

I mean...if It had been another person, then maybe only half of them would have been filled. Because some of the animals were already in group greater than 3, and most would think to just stick them all in one cage.

not so me.

:D

It was a great feeling. ^^ To be able to shuffle animals around and create less work for me tomorrow. 

I only wish I was able to fill all the cages.....but there were none left to be brought out from the back. 

Still. All but one is a great accomplishment! :D

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Broken Lights

So, I was busy at the register, helping customers to buy their purchases.
And managed to escape once the rush died down.
Headed back to my department, and noticed one of my managers carrying some items. Reptile products like lights and heat mats. I wondered why he was carrying them away from their department aisle.

I got the story soon enough.
Apparently, a guy walked in with the three items.
A big lightbulb worth like $80
A smaller UVB lightbulb worth like $30
A $20 dollar heat mat.

And wanted to return them.

So my manager, who happened to be on the register asked him.
"Do you have a receipt."
"No, I do not."

Bit of background.
Apparently earlier (not sure if it was today or yesterday...)
My manager had been on register.
And returned three similar (if not the same type) of items.

And gave the guy a merchandise card.
And the guy immediately turned around and sold this card that had over $100 on it.
To a woman for $50 like once he left the store.
Which she then used to buy dog food.

We'd been scammed.
>.<

The manager wasn't to be taken for a fool twice though, when encountering a similar situation today.
So without a receipt.
He refused to do a refund.

And the man,
Apparently walked outside,
And smashed the items to the ground.
Breaking two out of the three of them.
I mean, light bulbs break rather easily if they're thrown violently to the ground.

My manager saw the whole thing,
And went outside to talk to him.
Asking "You know...if I paid all that money for this stuff....I wouldn't just break it."
Apparently the man started  cursing at the manager, saying all sort of things.
And left.

We'd just stopped another thief from getting money from us.

>.<
I  wish it hadn't happened in the first place.
And its a shame that our items were destroyed in the process.
But its hard to have eyes everywhere at all times.
Its even more difficult to tell when a customer is stealing, or just browsing through the store.
>.<
Basically we have to use more aggressive hospitality.
Say hi to all the customers,
Ask if we can help them.
Come back and check in on them on occasion.

Basically if the thieves know that you know that they're there.
They're gone.
Anonymity is their game.
The ability to get in and out without notice.

Notice them.
And it stops them.

Hopefully this run of reptile items that are getting stolen from us,
ends.
Ends without more items stolen,
But we'll have to see.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Open Doors

So, before the store opens.
Our doors at work are locked.
In order to keep people from wandering into where they don't belong as we move freight and clean cages and basically have the whole store a mess.
Its also for our safety too. As we know who is in the store and who isn't before we open our doors.

But.
This morning.
I came in before the store opened, obviously to do my cleaning tasks.
So I rang the doorbell like normal.
Went to the doors.
And had a moment of surprise as they opened for me.
()_()
They aren't supposed to do that.
What crazy person would turn on the automatic doors before opening?!
So I turned to lock them.
Only to be stopped by a groomer.

And told some rather annoying news.

Apparently.
Our doors aren't going to be locked anymore.

A new policy has been implemented.
>.<
Which states that as soon as the Groomers come in for work, the doors to the main store have to be opened. To make it more convenient for our grooming customers to enter the store.

This wouldn't be a big deal.
Except.
The Grooming part of our store opens TWO HOURS before the main store opens!
That's two whole hours of work that we're still doing. We're still cleaning animal cages, cleaning the store, stocking shelves.
And now.
Our doors are going to be unlocked during that time period!

Sure. It means that we don't have to walk away from our tasks to go let grooming customers in.
But that also means that we can't keep customers out either.

They want us to "keep a better eye on the doors" to make sure no one who isn't supposed to enters. But seriously. Who has time for that? No one.
We're busy. We're not always in a position to be able to see the main doors!

>.<
It's like they expect customers to realize that we aren't open yet.
Ha.

Wrong.
You'd think they'd be able to see our hours posted on the door.
"We're open from this time to this time."
But no.

It's not something they look for.
If the doors open automatically for them as they approach.
They assume that the store is open!!

It's going to be annoying.
Frustrating.
A time waster in general
Because whenever we see a customer in the store we're going to have to stop them, and tell them. "Hey. We're not open yet. Our cashier won't be here until the store opens at this time."

I already had to do that today! Like half an hour before the store opened!
And the customer was like O.o "Why are your doors open then?"
BECAUSE YOU CAN'T READ THE STUPID SIGN AND STAY OUT!
Oh. So frustrating!
Because we have to let our grooming customers in. Apparently >.<

Now. I have to worry about people randomly being where they're not supposed to be.
Now. I have to warn people that "Hey, we have a fork lift out and about and you really shouldn't be in here because we are not open yet!"

Grrr.
And I'm sure people are going to get mad at us.
Though I really don't understand why they should.
Would they want to help people at their work if their work didn't open until a certain time and people showed up early? NO.
So why do you expect us to!

Learn the hours to the store!

But seriously.
Its a stupid new policy.
Is it worth it to make it easier for people to enter our store?
It helps like...maybe 100 people at the most in a week.

Is it worth it to risk customer safety if they're wandering around and a fork lift turns a corner and BAM hits them?
No.
Is it worth it to risk the safety of your workers? The doors locked are supposed to help us stay safe after all. No random people can walk in. We can work in peace.
But no.
Whoever came up with this stupid rule obviously has never worked a morning shift before.
Hasn't had to deal with customers in the morning who can't read door signs.
Probably hasn't even stepped foot in a Starsmet in their life to work!
Why fix what isn't broken?
Seriously.
Why?

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Long Hours

I overheard the Managers talking.

A bunch of price changes had come in that morning. Only discovered in the afternoon.
And we hadn't been given the hours to schedule people to do these price changes.
And there were a lot!
My department alone had like 900 price changes at least! I swear there had to be like 40 pages of stickers to fix so customers wouldn't be surprised at the register at why their purchase cost more than what they thought they did.
Because it felt like every item in the department went up in price. Y_Y Not good. Rather annoying.

So, the managers were lamenting the fact that they couldn't call anyone in to put these new sticker prices up.
Since I was already there....
I asked them.
"How many hours do I have?"
"Do you want more?"
I checked the schedule to see how many I was scheduled.
And I was nearly at my full limit. Like half an hour under.
And I told them that.
"So you get over time." Was their response.
So I told them that I could stay later after my shift and help them with stickers.
For 2 1/2 hours I moved through the department, replacing prices.

By the end.
I was exhausted.
I spent 11 hours at the store.

Basically all of it on my feet.
I was asleep on my feet.

oh. Long days of work. I'm glad I don't have it often.

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -Healthy

>.<
I was right.
The Tortoise.
I was right.

Remember a few days ago when I mentioned he'd been unfairly isolated.

He'd been unfairly isolated.

I checked on him this morning to still see no Stool in his cage.
And I was tired of waiting.
So I gave him a warm soak (placed him in warm water.) To help move things along.
Which did help.

I looked at the Stool.
And guess what?

It was NORMAL!!
>.<
I was right. 
The Tortoise was completely healthy!
He was eating.
He was active.

So I stuck him straight out onto the floor.
Where he can enjoy a nice big cage. 
And eat even more food to his hearts content.

*sighs*
Really, I don't see why my coworker freaked out about it in the first place.
There was nothing visibly wrong. 

-Sarnic Dirchi

MLAARE -The Competitor

So. 
There I was.
Working.
When a coworker came up to me with a customer in tow, asking if we carried Dove Food.
Usually Dove food and Finch food is intermingleable and is what we do here in the store.
So that's what I told the customer.
but she was looking for something different.
Because she didn't just have the small doves like the ones we carried in our store.
But the bigger versions as well and they need a bigger food.

Which we don't carry.
Because its not a food we carry.... 
(though now that I'm writing this I'm wondering if we had something in our wild bird seed section.) 
And told her so.

And the customer said "Well, I guess I have to go to your competitor then because I know they have it there as I bought it from them before!" And then she stared at us.
As if expecting us to make a scene from that pronouncement.
Like she was expecting us to suddenly be able to procure the desired food item with the mere mention of our competitor's name.

Because obviously we're rivals.
Obviously the name should bring gasps of horror and the effort to bend over backwards to ensure that we don't give business to our competitor.

Meh.

Not really.
Seriously, if we don't carry it. Its not like we can just go into a warehouse out back and bring out a 'new item' to the shelf because we're not Amazon. 
We're a store.
One with limited supplies.
One that isn't a warehouse in of itself with tons and tons of items in a huge back room to bring out for all the crazy customers who want to buy in bulk.
No. We're a regular store. With limited space in the back for extra products. 
So we don't carry a ton of extra things.
Just what we think we can sell within a few days really. 

Really. 
Using the competitor's name isn't going to strike fear into our hearts.
Isn't going to help your situation at all.
If you know its there.
Go.
We'll even give you the names of a couple other stores that could possibly carry the item they want. 
We're easy going like that.

Because.
If we can't make the customer happy within the store, we'll do our best to ensure that we can help them out as much as we can anyways.
Even if that means telling them the names of other stores in the area that could help.

I mean.
If we can't order in for you fast enough, or you don't want to drive to our sister store for the product up there, then of course we'll tell you the names of other competitors to help you out.

Nobody likes feeling frustrated. Including us. 
We know how it feels.
We'll try to make the transaction as painless as possible.

So no.
Saying our competitor's name isn't going to produce a miracle item suddenly appearing.
Don't expect any dramatic scenes from it.
If they have it we don't mind if you go there to get it.

If the customer is happy.
We're happy.

-Sarnic Dirchi